


Mending Heart

by Tangledfangirl



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, Redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:20:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23689825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tangledfangirl/pseuds/Tangledfangirl
Summary: When Eugene finds a crying Cassandra, he realizes that, as her honorary older brother, he has to comfort and help her.
Relationships: Cassandra & Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider (Disney)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 89





	Mending Heart

**Author's Note:**

> They deserved a lot more bonding time, so I decided to give it to them. Please enjoy!

Eugene sat up in bed, his heart racing. He wasn’t sure what noise it was that had woken him out of a very pleasant dream, but whatever it was seemed to have disappeared. Only the ticking of the clock was to be heard, along with a few scuttling creatures.  _ Rats,  _ Eugene thought, wrinkling his nose. As Captain, he’d have to take care of those. But that could wait until morning. Deeming the mysterious noise as nothing worth his time, Eugene rolled back over in bed and let himself drift back to sleep. 

But there it was again- a faint whimpering off in the distance, intermixed with repressed sniffling. Whoever was making the noise seemed to be trying to hide it, not wanting to wake anybody up. Well, somebody hadn’t completely succeeded. Eugene sat up again, now determined to find out who it was. In his state of half-consciousness, Eugene’s first thought was of Ruddiger, probably snuffling around for some food in the middle of the night. But Varian would never let that raccoon out of his sight, and with further examination, this wasn’t the sound of one of the many pets in the castle. 

No, this was the sound of crying. A  _ girl  _ crying. It wasn’t Rapunzel, Eugene knew the sound of her tears too well to mistake them for anything else. In a shot, Eugene realized it must be one of the girls- Kiera or Catalina. He wouldn’t let either of them face whatever was going on on their own, so in less than a moment, he was up- bathrobe and slippers on, ready to play the role he’d only recently assumed- honorary older brother. 

Eugene followed the noise through the halls and into the library, where he noticed a small, curled-up figure on one of the couches toward the other side. In the library lit only by moonlight, Eugene couldn’t make out which one of them it was, not noticing that the figure was too tall to be either of the girls. 

“Hello?” Eugene whispered, slowly approaching the couch, trying not to startle whoever it was. 

The figure turned her head around, and in a brief shine of the moonlight on her face, Eugene realized that it wasn’t Kiera or Catalina who had been crying, but  _ Cassandra _ . Cassandra, the same woman who had scared him half to death three years ago, and had become something of a sister to him throughout their journey. Cassandra, who’d been manipulated and used by Zhan Tiri to get the moonstone and had made some… questionable choices in the past few months. Cassandra, who had made it a goal to never show her emotions and had done pretty good with it, too… was crying? 

“Cass?” Eugene whispered, wishing he’d brought a candle. 

“Eu- Eugene?” she responded, looking straight at him. Her intensely wavy brown hair was caught up in tangled knots, and her face shone with the remnants of tears. She looked exhausted, more exhausted than he’d ever seen her before, and wondered why she wasn’t asleep. 

He sat down next to her, concern etching his face. “What are you doing here in the middle of the night?” 

Cass scoffed. “What am  _ I  _ doing here? What are you doing here?” 

“I- I heard someone crying, and I came to see who it was,” Eugene explained, noticing the way she was intentionally not meeting his gaze. “Cass, are you okay?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” she replied in a low voice, bringing her knees up to her chest. Eugene could see by the pain in her eyes that this was about more than just too much caffeine. There was something in her head that was demanding so much attention that she couldn’t shut her mind off and rest. 

“Nightmares?” he asked, putting one hand on her shoulder. Cassandra hesitated for only a brief second, and then nodded, closing her eyes. A single tear rolled down her pale cheek, even though she seemed to be doing everything she could to hold it back. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Eugene asked, even though he knew that she would probably say no. 

Cass sighed and shifted her body towards him. They now sat face-to-face on the same couch where they’d first realized about their shared love for history, stories of brave kings and queens who would risk anything for their country. Looking at her now, Eugene realized that she’d probably end up in a history book one day herself. He could see children loving her story: a story of hardships, memories, manipulation, a quest for revenge, and redemption. 

“I know I probably should,” she admitted, biting her lower lip, “We’ve both seen what happens when I stuff everything inside. But it just hurts so much to talk about.” Eugene stayed quiet, giving her time to make up her mind. 

Finally, Cass spoke. “It’s just, every time I close my eyes, I see…  _ her. _ ” 

You didn’t have to be Varian to figure out what  _ her  _ Cassandra was talking about. The evil demon who’d known just how to play and manipulate Cass into betraying all of the people she loved the most, who thrived on the insecurities and secret hurt of others. Zhan Tiri had been corrupting Cassandra’s mind and psychologically abusing her for far too long for Cass to just shake it off and pretend the whole thing never happened. Sure, Cass had made all of the choices for herself, but she never would have done any of it without the influence of Zhan Tiri. 

All this ran through Eugene’s head in a flash as he looked at her, and saw the deep pain she was still going through. She seemed to be having a hard time holding the tears back as she took one deep breath, then two, three. 

“When she first… appeared to me, she just looked like a, a little girl. She seemed like she was actually trying to help me. And I, I fell for it. She told me that she could help me achieve my destiny, to become who I was supposed to be. But she was never my friend. She was just in it so that she could use me as a pawn to get power for herself.” 

Eugene was intently listening to everything she said, his heart breaking even more for his friend and sister with every word she said. She was looking down at her hands, her shoulders drooped and her face even paler than usual. 

“It’s sickening to think that she played off of my own deepest insecurities,” Cass continued, wrapping her arms tight around her legs, curling up into a ball. 

Nodding, Eugene placed a gentle hand over one of hers, lightly squeezing it, just enough so that she knew he was still there, still listening. “It  _ is  _ sickening, Cass.” 

Cassandra gave him one of the saddest smiles he’d ever seen and placed her other hand over his. She took a deep, shuddering breath and blinked rapidly, trying to block the tears that he could already see creeping into her eyes. 

“But you know what the scariest part is?” she asked, looking up with a haunted, crazed look in her face. “It’s how easily I fell for it.” 

Eugene let the words sink in and squeezed her hand again. 

“I mean, I was completely under her control until I found out that she was Zhan Tiri, even after she took a physical form. She could have told me to throw Shorty off of the side of a cliff because it would ‘fulfill my destiny’, and I would have done it, no questions asked. What if I had done what she asked and ki- destroyed Rapunzel? I can’t even imagine what would have happened if I had, I mean, people would hate me so much, even more than they do now. And I would hate myself even more too. I’m an awful person, Eugene. 

“I spent my whole life training for this, training to know when someone is no good so I could figure out how to stop them. But Zhan Tiri’s about the most ‘no good’ you can get and I was on her side as soon as she made me feel like I was actually worth something. It’s just like she said, I was felled by my own ego. Maybe I do have more of my mother’s genetics in me than I thought I did.” 

Cass buried her head in her legs, gripping onto Eugene’s hand like a lifeline. The tears hadn’t come for their second round yet, but both of them knew that it was coming soon. 

“I was supposed to be the rational one,” she kept going, “The reasonable one. But as soon as I found out what my mother… did to me, I, I broke. It broke me emotionally, and that’s never happened to me before. I didn’t think I would… I mean, I thought I was more grounded than that.

“And I still don’t know who my biological father is. How do I know that if I ever do find out, I’m not going to break again? Maybe it would have been better if Raps hadn’t saved me after we- no, after  _ she  _ defeated Zhan Tiri. Maybe I deserve to die, after the awful things I’ve done. Then I wouldn’t be able to hurt anybody else.” 

Her voice cracked on the last word, and she finally succumbed to the tears, sobbing with everything in her. She lost the little control over her own emotions that she’d had a few seconds ago and broke down, her body shaking and breathing coming in gasps. Cass broke out of Eugene’s grip to rub her eyes with the back of her hands, but that only caused the tears to come down even faster. 

“I just don’t want to mess up again,” she choked out, throwing her arms around Eugene’s torso and sobbing into his shoulder. The way Cassandra held onto him, desperately clinging to him like she was drowning and he was a lifeboat, was not as if he was a dirty thief that she had to restrain herself from locking in jail. Rather, it was like he was a friend, a brother. A brother that she trusted with her most delicate possession: her emotions. 

Eugene had never seen this type of desperate affection from Cass, and it was overwhelming, for just a few seconds. But as soon as he realized what this meant, that she fully trusted him, Eugene realized how lucky he was to see this deep, hidden part of her, and pulled her trembling body in closer. He gently pressed her head into his shoulder with one hand and put the other on her back, trying to assure her that he was there for her, and would always be there for her. 

It was then that Eugene realized the one thing Cass had always wanted out of life. Not power, not importance, but validation. She needed someone to tell her how much she meant, that she was loved, she was wanted. Of course, this had stemmed from her relationship with Gothel. As a child, she’d worked so hard to be loved and still felt like she fell short. But as she grew… Eugene knew that the former Captain of the Guard, her father, loved Cass fiercely, but he had an interesting way of showing it. He wasn’t necessarily the “hugs and kisses” type of father, which explained why Cassandra turned out the way she did- dark and icy. 

She had thought that Zhan Tiri could give her that validation, even convinced herself of that. But now that she realized how that had never been the case, and understood the true weight of everything she had done, Cass knew who her real friends were, and how they had always been on her side. 

And now she was afraid of losing them again. 

Eugene let her cry in his arms for a while, trying to figure out what to say. Only when his bathrobe sleeve grew damp with her tears and she was still sobbing her lungs out did he realize what he had to tell her, what she’d been needing to hear for such a long time. 

“You are loved, Cassandra,” he told her in a low voice, for once pronouncing her name in the correct way. This was too serious of a moment for some of their petty fights. “We all love you. Rapunzel, your father, Varian, even Lance and Shorty, though they have strange ways of showing it.  _ I  _ love you, Cass, and you know that I don’t tell that to just anyone. You- okay, I know what your reaction was when I said this before, but that probably wasn’t the best moment, and it’s so true that I have to tell you- I think of you as my sister.” 

Cassandra didn’t reply, but her crying began to slow a little bit as she buried her face even deeper into his shoulder.

“We have so much in common, Cass. More than anyone else could ever share. We both thought that we were orphans our whole life, until we discovered who our parents were. And, I’ve only admitted this to Rapunzel and Lance, but when I first met my dad… It broke me too. I didn’t know how to react, either. I guess we reacted in different ways, huh?” 

Cass gave a wry chuckle, although her voice was soft when she replied, “You think?” 

Eugene took her sarcasm as a good sign and continued with new vigor. “We both have a hard time saying what we’re feeling, and we’re both new to… well, having friends. But mostly, the one thing that we have in common that I don’t think anyone else, at least, that we know of, shares with us… we both died.” 

He let his words sink in for a moment, and knew that they had when Cassandra gripped onto him even tighter. They were both remembering how it felt, to be ripped from this world in a haze of pain and confusion, then to come back what seemed like just a second later, to a world surrounded in warmth and light. That was an experience that no one could ever share with them, and in that instant, Cass finally knew what she had always known, deep down. She loved Eugene. Loved him as a friend, a brother. And that was hard for her to process, since she’d grown up with love as something foreign and rare, something that she felt she’d had to earn. 

And at this realization, and remembering what she’d done to her brother, what she’d done to all of her friends and family, Cassandra’s tears resumed. She began to shiver violently, whether because of the draft coming in through the open window or the sheer exhaustion- physical and emotional- that was evident in every part of her, or an odd mixture of both, Eugene couldn’t tell. He simply grabbed a blanket from the ground and wrapped it around her shoulders. Cass gave a small sniffle and her tears slowed to a stop, although she didn’t let go of her brother. 

“How?” she finally whispered, her voice muffled. 

“What do you mean?” Eugene asked, gently stroking her hair. 

“After everything I did… how could you- how could anyone still love me?” At saying these words, Eugene felt Cassandra’s body begin to shake and tremble again as her tears came back for another round. “I-I’m a failure,” she stuttered, choking on her own tears as she tried to get the words out. “You have every reason to hate me, to forget that we were ever friends. But here you are.” 

Eugene felt his heart break for her, because he knew what that was like. In his days as Flynn Rider, he’d managed to convince himself that it was impossible for anyone to ever love him. But then Rapunzel showed up… and she showed him that he wasn’t as lost as he’d thought. Now he had to return the favor and show the same thing to her best friend, who’d been lost for so long and was just beginning to find herself again. 

“Look, Cass, we can’t just pretend like everything you did… never happened,” he gently explained, giving her a light squeeze. “All of that is a very big deal, but that’s what makes forgiveness so amazing. It’s not like we love you like all that never happened, but it’s because we love you in spite of all that happened. We see now what drove you to do all those things, who was pulling the strings behind it, and although that doesn’t excuse any of the choices you made, it sure does explain them. And now that you know what your mistakes were and regret making those mistakes, and have done the best you can to mend the hurt you caused, that’s all you can do. You can’t change the past, and hating yourself isn’t going to make things any different. 

“But my point is, you are not defined by all of the bad choices you made. Everybody’s going to make bad choices, it’s what makes us human. And all of us are willing to forgive you. The question is, are you willing to forgive yourself?” Eugene wasn’t sure if she was still awake until she sniffled, her tears now completely spent. 

“I’ve tried, I guess. But it seems like the bad choices that I make are worse than the bad choices that everybody else makes,” she admitted, drawing in closer so she could rest her head on the top of Eugene’s shoulder. 

Eugene smiled at his little sister, who in the morning would probably deny the fact that this had ever happened. But she was so exhausted and worn out from crying that he guessed it made her affectionate. 

“Cass, just think about all of us. None of us are even close to perfect. Lance and I, we’ve stolen from hundreds of people. While you were gone, Rapunzel accidentally sent the entire kingdom to their doom.” He chuckled to himself, remembering all the drama that had gone down with the treasure hunt. Cassandra would have liked that, he thought, and wondered who her partner would have ended up as. 

“And Varian… well, you led the battle against him, so you know what he did. He kidnapped the Queen, tried to crush you in a robot, and later, he helped your ex-boyfriend take over the kingdom.” 

“My ex- what?” Cass asked, confusion evident in her voice. 

“You mean no one’s told you? As soon as we got back to Corona, we realized that Varian had teamed up with the Saporians and taken over the kingdom in a measly attempt at revenge. He only redeemed himself after a good conversation with Rapunzel. Man-bun guy was the leader of the pack.” 

“Ugh,” Cass groaned, remembering how she’d had to pretend she was in love with Andrew to lure him in the kingdom. The memory was nauseating. “Him.” 

Eugene laughed, completely understanding where she was coming from. “He asked where you were.” 

“And what did you tell him?” 

“That it was a… sensitive subject,” Eugene answered, his smile dropping. He remembered the exact moment when the weight of Cassandra’s betrayal had fully hit in and he really realized what she’d done. Up until that moment, he’d been more focused on comforting Rapunzel than on thinking about what it meant to him. 

But the night after they had defeated the Saporians, as Eugene lay in bed, he finally had time to think about everything that had happened, specifically, what Cass had done. He wasn’t a crier, but he had cried a bit that night, missing his sister and wishing he could do something, anything to get her back. 

“Eugene?” 

Cassandra’s voice jolted him back to the present, where she was still wrapped in his arms, her face wet with the remnants of tears. He realized then how grateful he was to have her back, and how things had been so different when she was gone. 

“Yeah, Cass?” he asked. She felt real and alive, nestled against him, and he nearly cried again, both with a deep relief that she’d finally come to her senses and a wish that he could make up for all the lost time they could have had together. 

“What did you mean when you said that Rapunzel accidentally sent the entire kingdom to their doom?” Cass asked, lifting her face to look at him. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were red with crying, but some of the pain had gone out of her eyes. Eugene resolved to do everything he could to help her fully remove that pain, to help both of them return to the days before they’d questioned their entire identity. 

Smiling, Eugene shook his head. There were so many stories, so many little anecdotes to share with her that he didn’t know where to start. He could tell her about the race for Herz der Sonne’s treasure, or the quest to get Rapunzel’s parents to fall in love again, or even their more recent adventures with Brock Thunderstrike. But there was one story he knew that he needed to share right now, in case the next morning they were going to drift away from this affectionate, caring layer of siblinghood and back to the squabbling rivalry that they’d known for so long. 

“I guess we have a lot to tell you,” he acknowledged. “And that is a story worth hearing, let me assure you, but there’s another story that I want to share first. You just relax, okay? Don’t be afraid to fall asleep. You’re safe now. I’ve got you.” He gently pressed her head back on his shoulder, and felt her follow his instructions and relax against him, certainly a lot more comfortable with him now than she’d been when they first met, when she got disgusted every time he even breathed in her direction. 

“This is the story of a girl. Her whole life, she felt like she needed to work hard and do amazing things to be loved, but the truth was that she was really loved for the incredible person she was. The problem was, her mother was a total jerk and made this poor girl, as a child, work all day and still, she didn’t get the validation she needed. Because her mother didn’t really love her. For some reason, she was opposed to this sweet, adorable little girl who wanted nothing more than someone to care for her and love her. 

“But then the mother made a decision, a very selfish decision, and left this poor girl alone by herself. Luckily, she was adopted by the Captain of the Guard, who raised her as his daughter and loved her as much as if she were his own flesh and blood. He brought her up to be a warrior, and she grew into a strong, independent and capable woman who could do anything she set her mind to. 

“Now, about eighteen years later, the lost princess of her kingdom returned. The girl had no idea, but this was the same princess who her mother had left her for all those years ago. The king and queen decided it would be beneficial for the girl to become the lady-in-waiting to the princess. Although she couldn’t stand the extroverted princess at first, soon they became best friends and went on many adventures with the princess’ very handsome boyfriend. 

“When they went off on a quest to find the princess’ destiny, our heroine began to feel like she was waiting in the wings. She felt like she was always being pushed aside for others to take the lead, even though she always knew what to do. And, most of the time, she was right. When she warned the group not to do something and they did it anyways, they usually got themselves into trouble. They should have listened to her more often, and the princess’ very handsome boyfriend only realized that a long time later, when the journey was over, and he wanted to apologize to his honorary sister for not listening to her when she clearly knew what she was talking about. 

“But when they went into a mysterious house, a house that the girl warned the group not to enter, she was pulled into a room by herself. In this room was a little, mysterious girl, who told our heroine about her past with her mother, and how her mother had cast her aside for the princess. And of course, the girl was brokenhearted and angry when she discovered this, and the mysterious girl- we’re going to call her ‘evil child who ruins everything’- used this anger to get the girl on her side, by convincing her to take an object of power for herself. This would, the evil child told her, help her to prove that she was more than just a lady-in-waiting and get revenge on everyone who ever underestimated her. 

“Our heroine took this object of great power, power of destruction and damage, because she thought it would help her become someone who people noticed and didn’t cast to the side. She turned against her best friends and unknowingly let the evil child who ruins everything continue to corrupt her brain and use her for her own good. Soon, her mind was so clouded by the evil child’s words that she decided that she wanted even more power for herself. She sought after many devices and mechanisms that could get her power, making some very uncharacteristic choices and eventually succeeding in taking the kingdom for herself. 

“Soon, she decided that she wanted the power of her best friend, the princess, since the evil child who still ruins everything told her that it was her destiny. She was about to get this power for herself when the evil child betrayed her, taking her own source of power and uniting them with her best friend’s, proving that she wasn’t a child, was far more evil than they’d thought, but was still ruining everything. Our heroine realized how clouded her mind had become, what she’d done to her friends and her home, and felt an immense weight of guilt settle over her. She felt like she’d never be able to make up for all of the damage she’d caused, and in a way, she was right. She couldn’t change the past. 

“But what this heroine, who had, in the end, sacrificed her own life for the kingdom, didn’t realize was that she didn’t have to fight this on her own anymore. Now that she realized who her friends were, her real friends, they were there and willing to help her get over it. She wasn’t a lost cause or someone who would only be remembered as a villain. She was a hero, who had realized the weight of her own mistakes and wanted to do everything she could to make it up to everyone she’d hurt. She wasn’t a failure. She was loved and cared for, and there were many people, more than she thought, who would have done anything to bring her back to her true self. She was worth fighting for, and the princess’ very handsome boyfriend knew that he would continue to fight for her until she regained the courage to fight for herself.” 

Eugene finished his story and turned his attention to Cass, who had barely moved during the entire story. What he couldn’t see was that his sister’s eyes were glistening once again, but not from sad, angry tears this time. The tears were from a combination of unfiltered joy, overwhelming relief, love for her brother and also sheer exhaustion. 

“That’s a good story,” she sleepily muttered, but although her words were indifferent, Eugene knew that he’d touched her mending heart in the way he’d hoped. Finally armed with enough comfort to keep the nightmares away, Cassandra’s eyelids fluttered closed, the weight of lost sleep too heavy to hold open any longer. 

A few minutes later, her body went limp and her breathing steadied, and Eugene knew that she was asleep. As delicately as he could, he scooped her up in his arms, being meticulously careful not to wake her. After all that had gone down lately, she needed some good, nightmare-lacking sleep. Quietly, softly, he tiptoed down the hallway to her room, holding his breath every time he passed an open door. He could hear Lance snoring and Catalina talking in her sleep, and his heart swelled, remembering how proud he was that he’d gone from a lonely orphan to someone who slept with all of his friends and family in rooms beside him. 

Including one of the most recent additions to his family, his sister who slept in his arms at this very moment. Cassandra had been lost for so long, even before Zhan Tiri got involved, and now she was just beginning to find herself, to discover what role she was supposed to play in her own story. Eugene knew that they would all help her find out, but in the end, it would have to be Cass who discovered for herself. 

Eugene reached his sister’s room and walked up to her bed. He shifted her weight to his left arm, and, using his right, pulled back the blankets of the neatly made bed. Gently laying Cassandra’s sleeping form down on the mattress, he pulled all of the many layers of sheets and blankets up to her shoulders. As Eugene stepped back, making sure she was comfortable, he looked into her face. His heart swelled with another wave of brotherly affection as he saw her expression. In sleep, she looked at peace, a greater peace than she’d known in a long time. 

He knew that, in the morning, they’d probably be back to squabbling over where they all sat at breakfast, or whether or not Varian should show off his new invention, but Eugene would never forget this little moment they’d shared. When Cass had completely let down her guard around him for the first time and allowed him to see this deep, hidden part of herself. He knew that their relationship had reached the next level, a level of trust and closeness that they’d never experienced before. 

“Sleep well, Cass,” he whispered, closing the door as quietly as he could and stepping into the hallway. As Eugene walked back to his room, he couldn’t wait to tell Rapunzel all about this. She’d be thrilled to learn that these two once-enemies had progressed to a relationship even beyond friendship. They were family now, maybe not biologically, but that was merely a small factor in determining the people one was close to. Family was about more than genetics. It was about love and trust, which Cass hadn’t been able to find in her birth mother. But that didn’t mean she was lacking a family. She had a father who loved her more than she could imagine, and a brother who was willing to stay up all night if it meant she could find sleep. She had a sister, who loved her enough to risk her own life to bring her back from the dead, a little brother who named his scientific experiments after her, and two little sisters who she was just getting to know. Yes, Cass had a family. Maybe it wasn’t your typical family, but it was more than enough for her, and that’s what mattered. 

_ I guess I did end up playing the big brother,  _ Eugene thought with a smile as he slipped into his own bed once more, letting sleep overcome him.  _ Just in a different way than I thought.  _


End file.
